AVB: Is Brent Spence debate a bridge too far?

When the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement suffered two major setbacks in Frankfort last week, supporters of the project were troubled, its opponents cheered, and outside observers wondered, “What the heck is going on in Kentucky?”

To some in the region, the path forward seems obvious: The bridge is outdated, overcrowded and unsafe, and it needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Federal transportation officials and members of Congress have said they won’t foot the entire bill, so the region has to pick up some of the tab in the form of tolls.

But the issue seems equally clear to others: The bridge carries an interstate critical to national commerce, and drivers already pay federal gas tax, so Congress should be forced to replace it – and we can afford to wait until they do.

It’s a wide gap, and the divide runs deeper in Northern Kentucky than in any other part of Greater Cincinnati. But the reality is that the project is unlikely to move forward without some common ground.

When Kentucky’s House of Representatives yanked $37 million in state money and allowed a ban on Brent Spence tolls to pass the chamber last week, legislative leaders were essentially telling Northern Kentucky, “You need to figure this out, and then get back to us.”

“One of the ways you judge a region is its ability to develop and execute strategies on behalf of its future. And we’re just not demonstrating our ability to get behind a strategy and work it in the competitive environment of Frankfort,” said Jim Votruba, chairman of the Northern Kentucky CEO Roundtable, which came out in support of tolls for the project last month.

But why is the region so divided? And how can those divisions be bridged?

There is no easy answer.

For the past 15 years, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has advocated for the project in Washington, D.C., Frankfort and within the region, making the case that replacing the now 50-year-old span is a critical priority. For more than a decade, nobody really disagreed with that premise. Then, two years ago, tolls came into the equation.

More than 150 Greater Cincinnati companies formed a coalition in mid-2012 called Build Our New Bridge Now to advance the project. The group publicly raised the possibility of tolls – or, euphemistically, “user fees” – for the first time.

Some advocates of the project now privately concede that may have been a miscalculation: pushing for tolls so early in the process allowed opposition to emerge and coalesce.

By the time Ohio and Kentucky transportation officials issued a preliminary financial plan in December 2013 that officially recommended tolls, opposition was already strong. Never mind that the governors of Ohio and Kentucky have repeatedly said the project will not happen without tolls – many in the region had already made up their minds.

The Northern Kentucky Tea Party has been the loudest voice against tolls, mobilizing its members and working to convince others to oppose tolls. Local lawmakers say their offices in Frankfort are flooded with messages to that effect.

“So much of the debate over the bridge and over tolls is a debate over the role of government, the size of government and what government should do,” Votruba said. “I think our legislators have a difficult time charting a course among these various political interest groups, and it makes it difficult.”

Northern Kentucky is also a politically-fractured community with no clear leader. With more than three dozen cities spread across three counties, no one person or group speaks for the entire region – so nobody has been able to steer the debate over the Brent Spence Bridge in a more constructive direction.

A growing number of cities – at least 10 – have passed anti-toll resolutions since 2012, along with both Boone and Kenton counties. Fort Mitchell Mayor Chris Wiest has led the charge to convince cities up and down Interstate 75 to sign on to the resolutions. Some, like Covington, are concerned tolls will divert a large amount of local traffic through their communities.

“This is not a business-versus-tea-party issue. I think this is a big-business-versus-community sentiment,” Wiest said. “You have a number of jurisdictions in Northern Kentucky that have passed resolutions against tolls. This is a community that does not want tolls, adamantly.”

For Wiest and many others, the issue is one of fairness: We pay federal gas taxes, so why should we pay tolls for a federal interstate bridge? Federal officials have said the money is simply not there, but toll opponents disagree.

“As soon as you accept that as an answer, you give the federal government a free pass on it,” Wiest said. “I do not understand how we can be sending billions of dollars to Ukraine in foreign aid and not find this money for an interstate bridge. I don’t get it.

“It is incredible to me: We’ve got the Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky and we’ve got the Speaker of the House from Ohio, and we cannot seem to get this bridge built?”

The divide between supporters and opponents continues to grow.

Advocates for the project hope to buy some time to bridge that divide by convincing the state Senate to restore the $37 million needed to keep the project moving forward toward construction. Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said Saturday that he is working to restore those planning funds, although he believes the federal government needs to pay for construction.

The $2.6 billion cost includes a new span over the Ohio River and the reconfiguration of a 7.8-mile stretch of I-75. About $100 million has already been spent on planning and design work. The project needs $60 million to keep it from stalling; it’s currently slated to receive $23 million earmarked years ago by former U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis of Hebron.

If the General Assembly restores the other $37 million, the next challenge is getting both sides to come to the table and find some common ground.

“We need to have a fact-based, truth-based conversation on policy, not one simply driven by emotion,” said Davis, who helped earmark $50 million for the project during seven years in Washington. Today, Davis owns a consulting firm that is lobbying for the project in Washington, D.C.

Chamber leaders are trying to get that conversation started. For several weeks, they’ve been meeting with toll opponents and trying to find some common ground somewhere. They’re also trying to dispel myths surrounding the project: There are no plans for $6.50 tolls, as the tea party’s website claims.

It’s unclear whether that’s working; Wiest believes toll advocates should come around to opponents’ way of thinking and apply more pressure on Congress.

In the end, the local lawmakers who oppose tolls are only doing “what the average citizen wants,” said Brent Cooper, the chamber of commerce’s interim president. “But I don’t think the average citizen realizes what they’re saying: No tolling at all means no bridge.

“What we’re saying to people is, ‘What if the toll is 50 cents? Are you still against it? What if there were no tolls at all between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.?’ ” Cooper said. “Just saying no is not a way to work through this problem. That’s what we’ve been trying to explain to people. Right now, just saying no is getting us absolutely nowhere.” ⬛